Etymologia nazwisk pierwszych mieszkańców Lewkowa Nowego w powiecie hajnowskim, obecnie już w tej wsi nieużywanych

Abstract

The aim of the study is to establish the probable etymology of the surnames of the first inhabitants of Lewkowo Nowe village, who settled in this place at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and during the interwar period. The object of analysis is exclusively the surnamesthat are currently no longer recorded in the studied village. The surnames that are continuously used in Lewkowo Nowe since it was founded until the present as well as the surnames of the population who settled in the village after World War Two are the object of separate studies. Analysis of the material has shown that most of the studied surnames have retained their East Slavic character because they had developed under the influence of Belarusian and Ukrainian. However, some surnames contain features associating them with the Polish language. The largest group of the studied anthroponyms consists of patronymic surnames of Belarusian or Ukrainian origin with the suffixes -uk (more than half of the analyzed surnames). Underlying these surnames are most often the variant forms of Orthodox names, which were recorded in large numbers in the Polish -Belarusian-Ukrainian borderland. Less numerous are surnames derived from toponyms by means of the suffixes -ski/-cki and the surnames formed from appellatives. The number of toponymic- and appellative -derived surnames increased considerably after World War Two following the settlement in Lewkowo Nowe by people from other regions of Poland. When establishing the etymology of surnames recorded in the borderland areas it is essential to notice the strict relationship between the surname under analysis and the territory in which it is found. Studying the etymology of the surnames recorded in linguistic and cultural borderlands requires scholars to be especially thorough and cautious in drawing conclusions.